Founding Forefathers Would Not Give Up On Town Of Fairfield

September 17, 1985|By Joe Sanchez of The Sentinel Staff

FAIRFIELD — Although this small, unincorporated community in Marion County is far north of what today would be considered prime citrus climate, the first settlers to arrive in Fairfield planted orange groves and prospered.

But the big freeze of 1898, the last of several winters of extreme cold, put an end to citrus in the area. The first residents were transplanted Northerners, most of whom returned from where they came after the freezes, said Mannie Gibson, whose late husband, Edward, chronicled much of the area's history.

However, a few of Fairfield's pioneers would not give up on their town, turning their efforts to growing corn and peanuts and raising cattle and hogs. Today the community of about 100 residents, most of whom are descended from its pioneer settlers, are truck farmers, merchants, professional people and retirees.

The newest addition to the community and this part of Marion County are the scatterings of horse farms near Fairfield and nearby Benedict.

Among the first to settle in Fairfield was Judge William Alexander Yongue from Winnsboro in Fairfield County, S.C. His three sons, Samuel, William and Robert, subsequently moved to the area and settled on property bought by their father.

Ruth Yongue Grubb, a resident of Fairfield and the great-great- granddaughter of the judge's son, Samuel, said it was for Fairfield County that this North Marion community was named.

The town still has its post office, established in 1898, the same year the Gainesville and Gulf Railroad was extended into community. With the railroad came many of the residents and businesses of nearby Benedict, lured by the convenience of railroad transportation.

In his account of the community, Gibson noted that in Fairfield's early history, the most important social entertainment of the year was a tournament in which young men competed by using long lances to spear rings that were suspended along the side of a race track. The one who speared the most rings was given the honor of naming the queen of the ball that was held after competition.

Gibson also noted that Sunday afternoons in Fairfield used to be the favorite time for the young men and women who gathered around what was known as Big Pond or Still Pond to promenade and socialize.